bentley



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIOE.

W. H. ALLEN AND A. J. BENTLEY, OF NEIN' YORK, N. Y.

ROPE-NIPPER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,709, dated October 11, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, IV. I-I. ALLEN and A. J. BENTLEY, both of the city,county, and State of New York, have invented a new and usefulRope-Pincer; and we do hereby declare that theY following is a full,clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the annexeddrawings, forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure l,represents a perspective view of the pincers showing clearly theconstruction of the same. Fig. 2, is a sectional view of the jaws of thepincers clamped to a rope. Fig. 3, shows the manner of using thepinchers. Fig. at, shows the present mode of attaching a block to arope.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures above referred to.

The object of our invention is to obtain an instrument for attaching toany rope to which a block and tackle is to be hooked, which will gripthe rope so securely that there will be no liability of its slipping andwhich will be readily attached and detached from the rope; at the sametime it will offer no injury to the surface or fiber of the rope.

This instrument is intended to dispense with the present modes ofattaching the block to a rope, one of which is simply to splice the endsof a small rope together and lash these ropes in a peculiar manner tothe rope to which the block is to be hung, but it is a well known factamong seamen that this attachment is very uncertain and will invariablyslip. There is also a great loss of time in making this attachment,while with the instrument we are about to describe, the pulley block canbe securely attached to any rope in a few seconds and will serve all thepurposes required while at the same time it is not liable to theobjections above mentioned.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use our instrument wewill proceed to describe its construction and operation.

Fig. l, of the drawings represent a perspective view of two levers A, A,which overlap each other and are jointed by a strong pin B. In the endsof handles are eyes C, C, similar to a pair of scissors; the ends of thejaws are bent as represented by the ligure in question and upon the endsare pivoted two gripping jaws D, D, the inner surfaces of which aregrooved longitudinally and diagonally so that the diagonal or spiralgrooves E, will conform to the surface of the rope and fit snugly intothe interstices therein as clearly represented by Fig. 2, which showsthe jaws in section when clamped to a rope. These spiral grooves orconcavities E, effectually serve to prevent the instrument from slippingupon the rope when in use. The manner of determining the proper size andconvexity of the spiral slots is to make a mold from the rope itself andto form a. pattern for casting the jaws from this mold, in this way thejaws will fit the irregular surface of the rope and prevent thepossibility of injury to its surface however great may be the weight ofthe article to be suspended upon the arms of the instrument.

The jaws are pivoted to the levers A, A, in order that they may beclamped parallel with the surface of any ordinary sized rope. The endsof the longer arms of the levers are connected together by a chain F, asrepresented by Figs. 1 and 3, which may be of any suitable length, andto this chain is attached the block Gr, by simply hooking the block tothe chain as shown by Fig. 3. It will be now perceived that when aweight is hung upon the pulley, the jaws will be firmly clamped to therope and the greater the weight the more securely will the instrument beclamped to the rope.

I-Iaving thus described our invention we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, as an improved article of manufacture,

The rope pincers composed of the grooved pivoted jaws I), and levers A,and otherwise constructed as herein shown and described.

WM. H. ALLEN. A. J. BENTLEY. Witnesses:

MICH. HUGHES, MARY B. l/Vrrrnu.

